Thursday, January 12, 2012
Unfavorable reviews for all four top congressional leaders are at their highest levels in three years.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains the best-known but least-liked leader, with 66% sharing at least a somewhat unfavorable opinion of her. Twenty-six percent (26%) share a favorable view of the San Francisco Democrat. These numbers include Very Favorable marks from 10% and Very Unfavorable reviews from 48%. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Pelosi’s negative rating is up from 62% last month.
Ratings for current Speaker John Boehner are also his worst measured. Thirty-five percent (35%) view the Ohio Republican congressman favorably, including eight percent (8%) who share a Very Favorable opinion. Forty-nine percent (49%) view Boehner unfavorably, including 27% who share a Very Unfavorable opinion of him. Sixteen percent (16%) still don’t know enough about him to venture any kind of opinion.
Negative reviews for Boehner are up from 42% in December and have ranged from 34% to 46% since he took over as speaker last January.
The new findings are perhaps no surprise given that voter approval of the entire Congress is at the lowest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports. More voters than ever also believe most members of Congress are corrupt.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 5-6, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here.
